YouTube Model Review Irks.

[stavanzer]

I watch video kit reviews from about 25-30 YouTubers. Many are British, some American, and a few others Russian or Eastern European.

One thing stands out about many of the car guys. The Tank and Airplane folks don't seem to fall into this trap the way many car Reviewers do.

My Number 1 Peeve?

The Yuck, Yuck, Yuck "Ah Shucks, Ah Never Seen no Models Before" persona that treats every kit they open as a Tabula Rasa, guessing what each part is on camera  (wrongly in many cases), and generally acting like a Third Grader faced with House Blueprints. Is there some Facebook or YouTube algorithm that rewards this juvenile behavior? Many Prominent Reviewers do this, treating every kit they get as Brand New Thing with no history, or backstory, and no attempt to share those things with the viewer.

Much of this activity could be stopped cold , by Reading the Instructions & Identifying Parts, before opening mouth and looking a fool on camera. I know these guys edit this stuff, but you would never know based how some of them talk about parts on the tree.....

"is that a CHICKEN up there? No, no, it's just the way he's holding the grapefruit..."

This kind of childish foolishness drives me mad! You, I don't expect a quick Ten Minute Review to identify every part, so saying just "These are engine accessories" is fine. They don't need to call out Starter, Coil, Oil Filter by name. But, the endless parade of "Is that a Bumper? No, it's a Seatback" or " Are those Hood Hinges? No, they're Shock Mounts" gets really tiresome.

Look, You have edited the video. We can see the Jump Cuts. So, Fix the careless Part I.D Issues. Some of these guys are getting Free Kits from the Manufacturer. They have turned Pro! They are not doing Round2 or Revell any favors when they blather on mis-naming parts and generally slopping about with the reviews. If I'm giving kits away free to Online Folks to show case my newest kits, I want them to show me the respect of at least 'Pretending' to do a good job......

Rant over.

( The Peanut Gallery, says "About Time, too! ")

 

[Rodent]

1 minute ago, stavanzer said:

I watch video kit reviews from about 25-30 YouTubers. Many are British, some American, and a few others Russian or Eastern European.

One thing stands out about many of the car guys. The Tank and Airplane folks don't seem to fall into this trap the way many car Reviewers do.

My Number 1 Peeve?

The Yuck, Yuck, Yuck "Ah Shucks, Ah Never Seen no Models Before" persona that treats every kit they open as a Tabula Rasa, guessing what each part is on camera  (wrongly in many cases), and generally acting like a Third Grader faced with House Blueprints. Is there some Facebook or YouTube algorithm that rewards this juvenile behavior? Many Prominent Reviewers do this, treating every kit they get as Brand New Thing with no history, or backstory, and no attempt to share those things with the viewer.

Much of this activity could be stopped cold , by Reading the Instructions & Identifying Parts, before opening mouth and looking a fool on camera. I know these guys edit this stuff, but you would never know based how some of them talk about parts on the tree.....

"is that a CHICKEN up there? No, no, it's just the way he's holding the grapefruit..."

This kind of childish foolishness drives me mad! You, I don't expect a quick Ten Minute Review to identify every part, so saying just "These are engine accessories" is fine. They don't need to call out Starter, Coil, Oil Filter by name. But, the endless parade of "Is that a Bumper? No, it's a Seatback" or " Are those Hood Hinges? No, they're Shock Mounts" gets really tiresome.

Look, You have edited the video. We can see the Jump Cuts. So, Fix the careless Part I.D Issues. Some of these guys are getting Free Kits from the Manufacturer. They have turned Pro! They are not doing Round2 or Revell any favors when they blather on mis-naming parts and generally slopping about with the reviews. If I'm giving kits away free to Online Folks to show case my newest kits, I want them to show me the respect of at least 'Pretending' to do a good job......

Rant over.

( The Peanut Gallery, says "About Time, too! ")

 

Easy peasy. I don't specifically know who you are talking about, not do I want to. Thumbs down on a crummy video and don't go back. I like unboxing videos of kits that I may want to buy. Some of them have made me not buy a kit that I thought I wanted (Round2 69 Cobra for one) and some have inspired me to buy a kit that I wouldn't normally buy (Revell 1/16 Porsche 356). Getting over full build videos too. 

[iamsuperdan]

As I'm reading your description, one YouTuber comes immediately to mind. 

Looking at a sprue like it's some mystical enigma, and misidentifying very obvious parts.

Looks at a seat, says it appears to be a rear spoiler.

 

I like the builders that don't speak at all. Just shows what's there, and then builds it.

 

[Can-Con]

Preach it Brother Alan! 👍

I knew more about cars and could identify the parts in grade school better then some of these grown men, so called "car guys". 🙄

How long does it really take to do a couple minutes of reasearch before putting yourself out before the public?

[stavanzer]

44 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

Looking at a sprue like it's some mystical enigma, and misidentifying very obvious parts.

This is what Grinds my Gears most!

You know better! You have now reviewed and built many, many kits. This isn't Rocket Surgery....

[Khils]

17 minutes ago, stavanzer said:

This isn't Rocket Surgery.....

....nor brain science!

   I'm sorry to publicly admit!  I have significantly reduced the reviews I watch for all the aforementioned reasons!  I'm probably going to want the kit regardless "someone else's opinion". 

Obviously they're getting paid to make them, and I refuse to oblige for worthless input....if I choose to watch any certain one... I've acclimated myself to hit the "MUTE" button.😁

 I seem to get all the pertinent information I need right here on this forum.

Edited August 20 by Khils
SP

[TonyK]

I like the reviews in the model magazines more than the Internet videos. Sadly, there aren't enough of them and lately I've seen reviews of kits that are long since unavailable.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

I knew more about cars and could identify the parts in grade school better then some of these grown men, so called "car guys". 🙄

How long does it really take to do a couple minutes of reasearch before putting yourself out before the public?

Yup.

And why it was so helpful when the instruction sheets called out the names of the real parts...which is WHY I knew a lot more when I was a kid than a lot of these guys seem to know now.

Of course, yootoob is full to overflowing with hobby vids where the presenter/producer seems to in fact know very little about the subject he "models", trains being one particular example...

[StevenGuthmiller]

This is part of the reason why I don’t waste my time watching videos.

Most of us on this forum know way more about these kits and how to build them then a lot of these goofs on YouTube.

As I’ve said before, they’re way better at producing videos than they are at building.

 

 

Steve

[Falcon Ranchero]

Saw a video little while ago while doing research on the Jo-Han kit brand. Steve Magnante was the host and he was unboxing I believe some USA oldies series kits. That's the video where I found out Jo-Han stands for John Hanley, the creator of the company, and not pronounced as "Yo-Han" and not some Japanese dinky toy type brand that I had origianlly thought at the time since I never really knew the history about the company. That was a good video to watch. Typically though I don't waste my time watching you tube very often, just that one Steve hosted was cool, plus the model kit TV show he had breifly was neat.

[NOBLNG]

About the only time I go looking for a YT video on a kit is if I am contemplating buying one and want to see the contents of the box.

[StevenGuthmiller]

2 hours ago, Falcon Ranchero said:

Saw a video little while ago while doing research on the Jo-Han kit brand. Steve Magnante was the host and he was unboxing I believe some USA oldies series kits. That's the video where I found out Jo-Han stands for John Hanley, the creator of the company, and not pronounced as "Yo-Han" and not some Japanese dinky toy type brand that I had origianlly thought at the time since I never really knew the history about the company. That was a good video to watch. Typically though I don't waste my time watching you tube very often, just that one Steve hosted was cool, plus the model kit TV show he had breifly was neat.

Steve Magnante is interested as much in the history of things as he is in cars.

If you ever watched him on the Barrett Jackson auctions, he was great at describing the history behind everything related to classic cars.

 

 

Steve

[Falcon Ranchero]

26 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Steve Magnante is interested as much in the history of things as he is in cars.

If you ever watched him on the Barrett Jackson auctions, he was great at describing the history behind everything related to classic cars.

 

 

Steve

I’ve seen him on the auctions on tv; that must’ve been the first time I saw him. Also really liked his other show, Junkyard Gold. He’s like a walking encyclopedia of car history knowledge.

[1972coronet]

There's a handful of YooToob videos I'll watch - subscribe to if the content doesn't irritate me terribly - and , yes, that prattling on about nonsense gets under my (Celtic) skin immediately.

As others here have mentioned , I prefer the "ASMR" kind of builds - no jabbering, no ad nauseam instrumental tracks , no rubbish. I can cite Mr. Lin and A4 Garage as two of the best that come to my mind. Mr. Lin provides English subtitles ; A4 does not. 

Apparently, Louie "Autistic Modeler" was slagged HARD recently. He happens to be one of my favourite content providers. Being Autistic myself, I know how difficult it is to provide content (let alone get though daily requirements - work, etc.). 

But, yeah... those nut jobs whose performance-content is akin to someone who took psychedelics before starting their gig...

[FoMoCo66]

1 hour ago, 1972coronet said:

Apparently, Louie "Autistic Modeler" was slagged HARD recently. He happens to be one of my favourite content providers.

Yeah, its a shame what happened. He always had a positive approach to the kits and was straight to it. I hope the negativity doesn't get to him enough to make him stop entirely.

I however like to have hpiguy workshop vids in the background sometimes when modeling. He is always the first one to have the new models reviewed. He also knows what he's talking about for the history of the kits, like his moebius 47 chevy kits he tells us how they were originally the galaxie unlimited kits. He even shows all of the stuff he has problems with and how they can be improved, for your and the manufacturer's sake. In general I like how much he actually knows about the different parts.

[Bugatti Fan]

Box opening videos that drone on and on with boring narration and no particular purpose, except perhaps for the You Tuber making them to get enough views to start making some money.  Do I sound cynical?

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Box opening videos that drone on and on with boring narration and no particular purpose, except perhaps for the You Tuber making them to get enough views to start making some money.  Do I sound cynical?

Well, at least they're not all AI voiceovers...yet.

[stavanzer]

6 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Box opening videos that drone on and on with boring narration and no particular purpose, except perhaps for the You Tuber making them to get enough views to start making some money.  Do I sound cynical?

Yeah, there is one Gent who does historic kit videos. He has some really great kits to show. 

But!

He holds the box in his hand for 1/2 to 2/3rds of the video, droning on about the history of the kit before finally opening the box and showing the contents.

I love kit histories, but Dude! Show us the parts as you are sharing the history. I seldom really watch his videos, just because there is So much talk before the action.

It saddens me because he shows some really great kits. His delivery is dry, even, and very boring. He knows his stuff, but it is hard to listen to him.

[LDO]

I don’t know about YouTube, but Facebook pays posters to be stupid…essentially. People get paid for clicks and comments, so many posters will get information wrong, just for the posts correcting them. It’s maddening, and it’s turning social media into a cesspool. Facebook groups can be a cool thing, but I can imagine a day when they will not outweigh the garbage. 
 

Also- anyone who uses AI to narrate a video is a lazy waste of oxygen. 

[michelle]

youtube is full of click bait videos not just on hobby stuff but for tv and movie and pop culture trivia and so called behind the scenes facts videos  as well as videos on historical subjects or archeology discoveries which the thumbnail is misleading just to get the click and then it has nothing to do with the thumbnail  
youtube seams to push for these type of content either clickbait or ragebait videos  or videos that either give false info or are full of very little  knowledge on the subject  cause they always get the most views and that is all that matters to the algorithm  

oh and now youtube seam to also love to push ai generated songs  that are suppose to be long lost or rare songs from the 50's and 60's and alot seem to be very inappropriate themed ones  and would never have been made back then  cause they will get clicks  and real music made by real artists get push down 

 

Edited Tuesday at 07:54 AM by michelle

[stitchdup]

youtube is paid by clicks, their entire business model is based on our clicks so of course they will use titles to entice us. views means money. but you can also look through the forum and see many members use clickbait titles on their posts (and theres nothing really wrong with that). if its the choice between "old man builds model car" or "old man builds model car, you wont believe the transformation" the latter will get more views because humans are interested in stuff, and the second title teases something extra. As for content creator vids dronning on and on, its the same on ordinary tv. all those chat shows are doing the exact same thing, filling nothing with something so somebody buys an advert

[sidcharles]

it's not too hard to figure out what's going on in a video after a minute or two.

and then those producers don't get watched again unless for a very specific reason.

knowledge is cumulative: learn to pick out what you need, and forego the rest.

don't steal from another man's rice bowl.

from a borderline producer this morning, i watched about half of a video themed at chopping a top on a '34 Ford pickup.

it was painful to watch the shop helper struggle removing some machine screws,  but i was richly rewarded by the views of the truck's cab, both inside & out, with the layout of bolts/ braces which i have not seen with such clarity.

it's a journey.

[stavanzer]

8 hours ago, LDO said:

Also- anyone who uses AI to narrate a video is a lazy waste of oxygen. 

You are so correct about this!

[JollySipper]

Some of what you guys are describing sounds like the one doing the unboxing is 'talking down' to the audience...... Almost like they're thinking of you as like a kid at Christmas or something! "What is that? A BB gun? Cool, huh? and there's a new bicycle! Santa really did you good!"

 

[johnyrotten]

I don't actively watch many creator's videos, I use them more for information or techniques. I will say many of the channels are long winded, and full of filler. I did catch the Austic Modeler's video where he talked about being bullied, unfortunate, but the internet can be a big ,scary, place if you don'thave thick skin. I actually found his video about problems with sealed vintage kits very well done, informative and to the point.